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Young Adult Fiction General (see Also Headings Under Social Themes)

My Life Off-Key

by (author) Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Publisher
Orca Book Publishers
Initial publish date
Feb 2024
Category
General (see also headings under Social Themes), Emotions & Feelings, Music
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781459834811
    Publish Date
    Feb 2024
    List Price
    $13.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781459834798
    Publish Date
    Feb 2024
    List Price
    $10.95

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Where to buy it

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 12 to 18
  • Grade: 8 to 12
  • Reading age: 12 to 18

Description

Seventeen-year-old Jen is shocked to discover that the dad she grew up with is not her biological father.

Jen loves to sing. But the rest of her family can’t carry a tune. When a stranger named Mike gives her roses at her concert and reveals that he is her birth father, Jen's world flips upside down. Mike is a musician, just like Jen, and now she understands why she looks nothing like Steve, the only dad she’s ever known.

When Steve learns the truth Jen's mom has been hiding all these years, he moves out, and Jen can't help but feel responsible. Worse, she doesn’t know who she is anymore. It feels like her whole life has been a lie. Is Steve still her dad? What about Mike? When it feels like her family is falling apart, Jen doesn't know where she belongs.

This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

About the author

Gail Anderson-Dargatz, whose fictional style has been coined as "Pacific Northwest Gothic" by the Boston Globe, has been published worldwide in English and in many other languages. A Recipe for Bees and The Cure For Death By Lightning were international bestsellers, and were both finalists for the prestigious Giller Prize in Canada. The Cure For Death By Lightning won the UK’s Betty Trask Prize among other awards. A Rhinestone Button was a national bestseller in Canada and her first book, The Miss Hereford Stories, was short-listed for the Leacock Award for humour. Her most recent novel, The Spawning Grounds, released in fall 2016, was again a bestseller. After nearly a decade of teaching within the Optional-Residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of British Columbia, Gail now mentors writers around the world through her own on-line forums. She lives in the Shuswap, the landscape found in so much of her writing.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz's profile page

Awards

  • Commended, Top Grade: CanLit for the Classroom

Editorial Reviews

“The plot was immediate, with no time for the reader to lose interest.”

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

“Both a coming-of-age story and a road map for processing difficult emotions.”

Kirkus Reviews

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